


Beyond the Face of Fear

by the_rck



Series: Nothing Until I Happen [3]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captivity, Gen, Intrigue, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 03:43:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13849380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: Only lifelong practice let Leia keep from gaping at him. Even that didn’t stop her from pulling back and flattening herself against the wall. Part of her mind noted that as evidence of just how narrow the bench she’d been sleeping on was. All the rest of her was grappling with Vader’s words which couldn’t possibly mean what they very clearly did.Finally, she settled on the point she could deal with-- Darth Vader’s priorities had diverged from the Emperor’s. There had to be a way to use it.If she lived long enough to find it.She didn’t pause between that realization and nodding. “If that’s what it takes,” she said. She wondered why she’d never heard of Vader having family and hoped that the monster’s son wouldn’t be equally monstrous.





	Beyond the Face of Fear

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Lucille Clifton's poem, “blessing the boats.”
> 
> Thanks to Merfilly for beta reading.
> 
> No sex in this. Not even kissing or hand holding. The next story, whenever I get to it, might need a Fake Dating tag, though.

Something had changed. The guards bringing Leia’s meals and taking her for rare opportunities to wash wouldn’t talk to her, but she could see from how they stood and from the differences in how they spoke to each other that they were frightened, not of her but as if they expected something to ambush them. She didn’t see, smell, or hear any signs of fighting when she was out of her cell, but given the size of a star destroyer, that might simply be because nothing had happened in the small spaces she was allowed to visit.

She’d seen Vader twice since her capture, and neither visit had been something she wanted repeated or was even willing to think about. She hadn’t seen Tarkin at all. For the last three days, she’d only seen Stormtroopers. She thought that the two contingents escorting her to shower had been commanded by different men. If nothing else, one had given her a pretense of privacy while the other hadn’t. Not doing it served no purpose beyond pettiness and giving the Stormtroopers a chance to ogle her.

She didn’t allow herself to change her behavior in either case. Cutting remarks wouldn’t change anything; they helped with Vader and Tarkin because they gave her a bit of solid mental ground. Spending them on Stormtroopers would be foolish. She considered seduction for about five seconds, but she was pretty sure that none of these men had the means to help her escape. The Empire assumed that all minions were corruptible.

And, probably, the Emperor would consider Leia a better hostage for her mother’s obedience than an object lesson for would-be rebels. Time allowed more chances for pain, but it also granted the possibility of hope. She was willing to go down spitting in her executioners’ faces if it came to that. She just didn’t want die if there was a chance of escape that wouldn’t cost her heart or her soul.

That she might not have a choice either way was considerably more terrifying than any other aspect of her captivity. Righteous fury was the only protection she had against that knowledge, so she wrapped it as tightly around her psyche as she could and refused to acknowledge that fury might be a limited resource.

Sudden bright light and the door of her cell opening woke Leia some time during her night cycle. She blinked and raised an arm to shield her eyes as she sat up and looked at the door. For a moment, all she could see was a dark figure filling the doorway.

She knew who it had to be, but she gave herself a split second to pretend that this wasn’t going to hurt. Then, she inclined her head to one side in regal imitation of her mother’s response to an unexpected and undesired visitor. “Lord Vader.”

“Princess.” Vader’s tone was utterly neutral. He remained in the doorway for several seconds before stepping inside.

A small hovering droid followed. 

Leia’s stomach clenched and went icy until she realized that it wasn’t an interrogation droid. Adrenaline still coursed through her veins, so she tucked her hands under her thighs so that their trembling wouldn’t give her away.

The door closed behind Vader. He twitched a hand at the droid and said, “Begin.”

The droid didn’t move, but several lights on its surface flicked on and then off again. “Clear,” it said after several seconds.

Vader nodded. “You look healthy.” He sounded irritated more than anything, as if her good health were a personal affront.

Leia raised her chin and glared at him.

“Your medical records from Alderaan are sealed, and, under the circumstances, any sort of… inspection would attract the wrong sort of attention.”

Leia kept her face still as her mind raced. Whatever she’d expected from Vader, it hadn’t been that. She raised her eyebrows at him. “If you wanted to know if I’d survive… enhanced interrogation, that wouldn’t be something you’d hide.”

And it hadn’t been something he’d bothered to consider earlier.

“No.” Vader didn’t say anything else for several seconds, and Leia had to force herself not to fidget. “You’re intelligent. You have mental strength. You appear physically… suitable.”

Something icy and prickly twisted its way up her spine. “I am also a valuable hostage,” she told him softly.

He flicked his fingers in dismissal. “The Emperor would likely consider that. He is not here. Tarkin is dead. I consider your parents irrelevant. Shortly, Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan, will die. A girl of some other name-- possibly Leia but never again Organa-- might survive to bear me grandchildren.” He crossed the cell and took her chin in his gloved hand. He turned her head to one side and then the other. “I suspect the boy will have qualms if you appear unwilling. Your cooperation is desirable to that extent.”

Only lifelong practice let her keep from gaping at him. Even that didn’t stop her from pulling back and flattening herself against the wall. Part of her mind noted that as evidence of just how narrow the bench she’d been sleeping on was. All the rest of her was grappling with Vader’s words which couldn’t possibly mean what they very clearly did.

Finally, she settled on the point she could deal with-- Darth Vader’s priorities had diverged from the Emperor’s. There had to be a way to use it.

If she lived long enough to find it.

She didn’t pause between that realization and nodding. “If that’s what it takes,” she said. She wondered why she’d never heard of Vader having family and hoped that the monster’s son wouldn’t be equally monstrous. 

***** 

Ending up in Tarkin’s old suite with a farm boy from Tatooine was actually better than most of the scenarios Leia had considered. Luke wasn’t physically repulsive, and his behavior while Vader was present was much more shy adolescent crush than anything vicious or lavicious.

But Luke never lost track of where she was or of where Vader was, and after the door shut and locked-- Leia very definitely heard it lock-- behind Vader, a tension that she hadn’t realized was there drained from Luke’s posture.

“The lock’s for me,” he said softly. “Not because he thinks I’ll run-- Where would I go? --but because he thinks I’m--” Luke shook his head. “I’m not four. I’m not thirteen. I wasn’t fool enough to wander without water even when I was.”

Leia stared at him.

“He’s not listening or watching. Any way that he could would also let someone else do it.” Luke turned his back on her and started to pace. “He’s scared to death that someone’s going to realize who I am, even that I exist, and he’s got a dozen different ways of dealing with that that are all going to crash into each other soon.”

“You’re really Vader’s son?” Leia couldn’t quite keep disbelief out of her voice.

Luke swung around and stared at her. “He told you? He hasn’t even told _me_. I thought--” He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I assumed there was a reason not to say it. Or that he didn’t want me to know.” He suddenly looked exhausted, frightened, and, somehow, smaller than he had before.

He was as trapped as she was. Worse, probably, because if Vader was breaking with the Emperor and lost, Luke was doomed. If it happened, Leia might survive because she was still the only child of the Queen of Alderaan, but Luke… Luke was locked in a suite on a star destroyer with no control but whatever influence he could exert on Vader.

Leia wasn’t sure yet why Luke wanted her there, but she was almost certain that it wasn’t anything that was going to lead to grandchildren for Vader.

“You should sit,” Luke said. “No. Not ‘should.’ You can if you want to. Or not. There’s lots of water and some food.” He pointed left. “Toilet and shower over there.”

The way he said ‘shower’ made Leia think that it was an alien concept. She supposed that that made sense, given Tatooine, and she wondered what he was used to doing instead. It didn’t matter, but she still wondered. “I’m okay,” she told him. She sat down on the sofa which was plush and a deep purple that shaded to near black. There was a folded blanket, brown and cream, made of some sort of animal fiber, draped over the back of the sofa. She suspected that that was actually Luke’s and started looking around the room to see if she could spot other items that were his rather than leftovers from Tarkin.

She wasn’t surprised that Luke pulled a chair from the small table to place it facing her. There was space for him to sit next to her, but she thought that he knew the message that would send and had decided that he wasn’t going to. She narrowed her eyes at him. “So… Am I Vader’s idea or yours?”

Luke smiled, looking pleased. “I knew you had to be smart! I told him I was lonely. Then I mentioned that your hologram was pretty. He was so pleased to be able to give me something.” He almost laughed. Then he shook his head. “He has the droids and Old Ben-- Obi-Wan-- Kenobi. I’m sorry.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “There’s some sort of serious poison between them. I-- _we_ \--need Vader more than we need Ben.” He met her eyes, and she saw that he was deadly serious.

Leia was pretty sure that Luke also thought he needed Vader more than he needed her. He was probably, on a very cold and practical level, right, but she thought she could make his ‘we’ more definite about including her. She smiled at him. “I’d like to live.”

If he didn’t realize that that wasn’t always her first priority, she’d probably be better off. He wasn’t likely to be naive enough to think that being willing to sacrifice herself for certain ends didn’t come with an implied willingness to sacrifice him.

Luke nodded. “He’s given me access to so much information that I have no idea where to start. This is… This is my first time off-planet, and Tatooine--” He shook his head. “I had no idea who Vader was the first time I saw him. I’d never heard of you. I don’t think I could have named a single member of the Senate.” His lips pressed together in a thin line that spoke of fear and deeply buried anger. “He knows where to find my family,” he said softly. “I can’t run, and relying on him to keep us all alive is-- There are things he can do, amazing things, but none of them are actually going to help.”

Leia felt a chill. He hadn’t asked Vader for her because she was pretty. He hadn’t asked Vader for her to protect her. Those were bonuses but not the point, so they weren’t levers she could rely on.

Luke had asked Vader for her because her knowledge and abilities might make staying with Darth Vader-- with his father who Luke didn’t include in the word ‘family’-- a thing that didn’t end in death. Luke was ignorant, but he wasn’t nearly as naive as she’d assumed.

She could probably still use all of that.

“Information for safety,” Luke said softly. “It won’t work if you don’t want it to, and I’m not going to tell him I don’t want you, but…” He shrugged. He obviously knew she could and probably would use him and anything she learned, but he also knew she’d be safer if Vader saw evidence of Luke’s affection.

She frowned at him. “That’s kind of a stupid thing to be honest about.”

His smile told her that he’d heard the conditional yes. “You’re going to be in a really good position to push me into a sarlacc pit, so lying wouldn’t be smart, either. We’re both in the wastes. I’ve got the water. You’ve got the map. That might not be enough, but neither of us really has a choice.”

Leia nodded and wondered how dangerous Luke was going to become. If she was clever, she could probably use that, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't yet seen TLJ because I can't handle movies on a big screen. I will likely see it as soon as it's out on DVD, but this version of Luke isn't necessarily going to fit well with that one. Luke in the OT seems to me to have risen to meet the challenges presented to him because they were the challenges there rather than because he couldn't have succeeded against other challenges.
> 
> I have no idea where this is going or when I'll have the next story. The series might even end here if a necessary character beat/event doesn't sink its claws in and insist. I've got a couple of ideas that might someday become something but that also might not.


End file.
